Awkward Situations

Sweetie Belle left the boutique with happy, determined speed. She ran through her yard, past a bench with Jack sleeping on it, and into the center of Ponyville, where she turned around and ran back to where she came from. Jack was lying on a bench with half of him hanging off of the side. He had a few newspapers of different varieties over top of him as a makeshift blanket.

"Jack!" Sweetie Belle said with a smile as she shook the sleeping giant awake.

"But mooooooommmm! It's Saturday! Let me sleep...." He muttered.

"It's me, Sweetie Belle!" Jack opened his eyes and met Sweetie's.

"Heeeyyy..." He said, wiping the tired from his eyes. "Wazup?"

"Nothing much. I just wanted to see what you wanted to do today!" She said beaming.

"Well, I'm gonna be going with Cheerilee's husband to his work in order to get to know him better 'er somthin'. You can come with us." Jack offered.

"Alright. What does he do?"

"Notta clue. But that's the adventurous part of it all! We get to run in there blind!!" Sweetie giggled as Jack jumped from his seat with the last words. Newspapers flew off of him and into the breeze, like birds scared off of a statue. Sweetie Belle jumped onto the bench with Jack.

"Lots of danger and excitement!" She shouted.

"Heroics and stunts!" Jack added.

"Explosions in the background!"

"And cool hats that we have to grab before a door closes in a temple, separating us from them!"

"Suspenseful moments with a cliche villan!"

"Et cetera!" Jack finished.

"Hello, Jack!" Someone called from behind him. Jack swiveled his head around and saw the familiar looking stallion he knew he'd be spending the day with.

"Yo, wadup, Celsius!" Jack called back. Celsius paused for a moment, then shook off his confusion and continued his halfheartedly optimistic jog to his human friend.

"Hello, Jack. Sweetie Belle, isn't it? Cheerilee has told me alot about you and the other crusaders. You seem like a very determined bunch!" Celsius complemented.

"Thanks! We do all sorts of things to try to get our cutie marks! We try everything..." She said with a much more serious expression.

"Hey, what is a cutie mark?" Jack asked. Before Celsius had a chance to answer, Sweetie Belle had already begun her response.

"A cutie mark is a symbol that represents your special talent! You get it when you find out what you especially good at and it sticks with you for the rest of your life! It's yours and it shows that nopony else is like you. You are special!" Jack was baffled by such an intelligent response from such a young pony.

"Yes... That about sums it up. Very good." Celsius said with a relatively large smile on his face.

"Enough child geniuses! We have work to watch you do!" Jack shouted.

"Alright. I have these pills her for you." Celsius pulled a bottle from out of under his wing and popped the cap off. "These will let you walk on clouds for about three hours. Are you coming as well?" Celsius asked Sweetie Belle, who nodded violently. "Alright." He said while hoofing off some pills to her too.

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I had my cute hat on as the three of us were pulled up to the cloud city in a carriage driven by two pegasus fucks.

Earlier...

"How are you Celsius?" One of the pegasi asked the weather pony.

"Good, thank you. I've some guests that will be coming with me today." He said, gesturing towards Sweetie and I.

"Alrig- GAH! What the hell is that thing!?!" One guard asked; the other cowering behind him.

"A human being." Celsius answered bluntly. The cowering one came to the front with a sort of smile.

"Oh, humans... My mom used to tell me stories about them before bed." He approached me and looked very closely through squinted eyes. "Freaky..."

"Fuck you!"

Present time...

"We're almost to Cloudsdale, sir." The bedtime stories one said.

"Very good." Celsius replied. "Uh, do be careful to keep us away from the more highly populated areas. Don't want anyone being scared witless." The two pegasi pulled us off to the side of the gargantuan city and parked us in a much smaller section of the place, behind a cloud house. "Be careful, you two." Celsius warned Sweetie and I. "We're currently one thousand feet in the air. Stay away from the edges of the clouds."

"Shewr thing, dude." I said. Sweetie gulped and nodded.

"Alright. Cheerilee asked me to show you around my work place and try to get to know you, Jack. And that is exactly what I intend to do." Celsius beamed with determination.

Celsius had showed us around most every place that we could go in Cloudsdale. Except for the places with lots of civilians. I was too scary and intimidating to go show off; even though that's exactly what a seven year old spent the past three days doing and there still have been no repercussions. But I used my better judgement with Celsius. If he said I shouldn't do it, then I might not.

"And this is the part of the weather factory that I manage." Celsius said with pride. "The Temperature Facility. Here, we have to figure out how to maintain a certain temperature with different types of weather and precipitation." The three of us passed by a few glass windows. "If you look to the left, you'll see some weather ponies tinkering with a rain cloud to make sure that the rain inside is neither too hot, nor too cold." A pegasus stood under the cloud while another, above kicked it. Rain fell from the cloud and the pegasus below immediately screamed once it hit him. Steam then fogged up the window we were looking through.

"That rain was obviously too hot." Celsius said with one eye clenched shut.

"That's gotta be third degree, at least." I said. Sweetie Belle wore a shocked expression for a moment before Celsius continued us on our tour.

"In the window to your right, you'll see some ponies testing the humidity of the heat in this room." A pegasus wearing a breathing mask walked through the room holding a long stick with a large sponge on the end in his hooves. He did a few cycles, then left the room and entered the one at its side; the sponge was removed and rung out, producing over a liter of water in a weighing dish.

"Very humid in there."

"It pays to be a fish with legs in these test chambers." I said. Celsius grunted; obviously annoyed by that last one.

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The trio exited the facility an hour later.

"That was a lot of weather." Jack said half sarcastically.

"Yeah... I hope that hazmat suit one is okay." Sweetie Belle said.

"He's been struck by lighting many times before. He should be fine." Celsius said.

"Alright..." Sweetie said, not entirely sure she could believe him.

"Alright. You two stay here. I'm going to go get us our return tickets for the carriage."

Sweetie Belle and Jack sat off to the side and talked for a few minutes.

"So, that whole thing was pretty cool." Jack commented.

"Yeah, but that pony getting shocked was a little scary."

"I tried really hard not to laugh, but it was pretty serious. Yeah."

"I thought he was going to die! He's very lucky he didn- AHH!" Jack swung his head down to Sweetie Belle and was able to see the top of her head before it sank below the cloud layer. All time slowed almost to a stop. Jack launched himself to the hole in an attempt to catch Sweetie by her mane or anything! But all he caught was air.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She cried during her descent. Jack took no time to think and simply dove down the hole himself. Sweetie Belle was pretty far away. Jack reached to his back pack and removed his gloves before slipping them on. He slapped the wrists together and pointed his palms away from his falling target. Flames exploded from his hands, launching him forward. Within seconds, he slammed into the still screaming Sweetie Belle and grabbed onto her as tightly as he could.

"JACK!?" She screamed through the thundering winds.

"SWEETIE BELLE!! YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO GRAB ONTO MY CHEST, ALRIGHT?!? I'M GOING TO TRY TO ANGLE US TOWARDS THAT LAKE!!" Jack screamed as he pointed towards the large body of water.

"OKAY!!!" Sweetie screamed as she clenched herself to Jack's torso. Jack slapped his wrists together again, causing the flames to once again erupt from his palms. The two falling were pushed to the side and above the water it looked like. They were almost above the center of the lake when Jack's flamethrowers went out.

"SHIT!!" He shouted. Sweetie didn't dare ask what for. The ground came speeding at them at an unimaginable pace and was only getting faster. Jack realized that they were nearly as close to the water as he thought they were.

I've only got one shot at this... He thought.

He angled their descent more towards the lake, hoping for more direction so they might see another day. A few clouds smacked into them and Jack slapped wildly at his face and failed to notice the shed they were headed towards.

"SHIT!!!" He screamed again as he balled himself up. Their bodies smashed into one side of the shed and exploded out the other before landing in the shallow portion of the lake water.

"Couldn't fucking (GASP) let me hit (GASP) the water, huh!? (GASP)" Jack shouted to the air. After realizing Sweetie Belle was no longer with him, he spun in a circle a few times and found her face down in the water, near the shore. "Sweetie Belle!!" Jack swam as quickly as he could to her, doing his best to ignore the excruciating pain he felt everywhere. His back felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, while his left arm and chest felt like someone dropped anvils on them. Jack grabbed Sweetie Belle from the water and carried her to shore where he immediately began CPR on her.

"Come on (GASP) Sweetie Belle! You can (GASP) make it!" The poor filly was covered in scrapes and cuts. She looked like she'd be thrown through the windshield of a car during an accident. "Sweetie Belle!" Jack shouted to her. He forced his breath down her throat and pumped his hands on her chest. "COME ON, DAMN IT!! (GASP)"

"Gak!!" Sweetie Belle coughed as water shot from her nose and mouth. Once the water was out she took a huge gulp of air and began breathing normally again.

"Sweetie (GASP) Belle!!"

"Jack..." She replied weakly. "My head hurts..." She said before falling unconscious. A line of blood trailed down her neck and onto the ground. Jack moved her mane out of the way and took note of the enormous gash on the side of her head.

"FUCK!!' Jack said as he hoisted her up off of the ground. He frantically looked around and his eyes settled on a hospital nearby. He noticed he was back in ponyville. "Let's get you (GASP) to the hospital. (GASP) Damn it, why (GASP) is it so hard to breathe?! (GASP)"

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I kicked the door to the hospital open and limped inside with the white, bloodied filly in my arms.

"Oh, my goodness!" A pink maned nurse pony shouted.

"This filly (GASP) needs medical attention! (GASP)" The nurse looked between Sweetie Belle and I and picked up a phone before shouting into it.

"We've got an emergency in the main lobby!" She shouted. "Any doctors available report to the main lobby!" Mere seconds went by and there were three doctors in the room ready to help.

"What happened?!" A brown maned, caramel colored pony asked.

"She's hurt (GASP) very badly! You have (GASP) to help her!" The doctors' eyes widened.

"He's got a collapsed lung! Someone get him to the E.R, stat!" Two of the doctors grabbed onto either of my arms and I pushed them off and got right in the caramel colored one's face.

"Listen, fucker! (GASP) Just because I'm hurt (GASP) doesn't mean I won't rip you in half (GASP) if she dies or goes comatose! (GASP) Help her first (GASP) then we can worry about me..." A unicorn nurse to his side levitated Sweetie Belle out of my arms and carried her down the hallway to a room. The caramel doctor still wore a look of shock on his face, not blinking. "Thank you..." I said. The others left the room and the caramel one walked me to my room where I was told to wait a moment.

I laid down in my bed and clenched onto my aching sides. Sweetie was safe and the doctors would help her. Now there was nothing distracting me from the agonizing pain that I felt all over my body.